tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8518835947947433157.post101668700282888485..comments2021-09-09T21:16:02.942-07:00Comments on Writing (about) Time: Thoughts Concerning Temporal Play in Contemporary Narratives: A Time Paradox is Nothing but a Loop: Several Time Issues Within LooperMelissa Ameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13372494777317072570noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8518835947947433157.post-82972894069994842112016-03-09T16:29:04.058-08:002016-03-09T16:29:04.058-08:00"It was a nod that, in the future, superheroe..."It was a nod that, in the future, superheroes wouldn’t matter and the most we would get, is indeed, a bunch of assholes." I laugh because the latest superhero movie was Deadpool: the asshole-iest asshole to ever asshole. I do believe that, should people get these extra powers, most wouldn't use them for good. Look at our government. They get another kind of power and it almost always goes to their heads. Superpowers will act the same way. I definitely see the critique of superheroes as a critique on people in power.Kristina Kastlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07580807881489622895noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8518835947947433157.post-80596714401819456382016-03-09T14:15:30.010-08:002016-03-09T14:15:30.010-08:00Your assignment raises a lot of important question...Your assignment raises a lot of important questions regarding genre, especially how problematic the term is, considering how confusing it is for some people, as it has different connotations. I think movies are generally marketed to fit, usually in a cookie-cutter way, a concrete genre, such as sci-fi or horror, but your point of reimagining movies in a way that disrupts monolithic categorization provides a unique opportunity to open up interpretation for viewers, as well as new ways for screenwriters to play with genre in productive ways.Ben Cravenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05760265334674280878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8518835947947433157.post-8018200305224573072016-03-09T12:25:08.564-08:002016-03-09T12:25:08.564-08:00Ty, I thoroughly enjoyed your insights. Although I...Ty, I thoroughly enjoyed your insights. Although I enjoy the film Looper quite a bit and have seen it many times, I never really gave any notice to the fact that Joe only really checks or cares about the time when a job and/or payday is involved. I appreciate your linking the article that criticizes the film as well, mostly because the author admits that there's is "no original idea" anymore before bashing Looper for "ripping off" other films and stories. The criticism points out some important things of note to the film. <br /><br />The time travel aspect of the film is obviously the most important, and the entire film could have went off of the aspect of time travel and its usage for the entire film. Instead, as you mention, they introduce the idea of "TKs" which then becomes the main aspect of the film (rather than the time travel). I am unsure if this was even necessary for the film (although it was necessary to the plot that was given). Like the critic, I feel that the TK aspect of the narrative is a bit contrived whereas the time travel aspect felt it was more important and reliable.<br /><br />I like that you pointed out (albeit with minor spoilers) about the use of time travel as a motif as element of the film as well. Because every time travel narrative uses time travel in different ways and creates different "rules" for time travel, it is important that you noted how time travel is allowed to work in the film, such as the Butterfly Effect example. In Looper, things that get changed in the past ultimately affect the future (such as the "young" Seth being tortured, leaving the "old" Seth to be mutilated onscreen in real time for the viewer). But unlike most Butterfly Effect narratives, Looper allows the past and future to be "connected" in a way that allows the different parts of the timeline to interact with one another rather than being independent timelines, such as the reboot Star Trek films (where in one timeline, the Romulan homeworld is destroyed and in the other it is intact, and Nero, a Romulan warlord, is stuck inbetween the timelines).Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11104567587136980910noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8518835947947433157.post-48139188913777701492016-03-09T10:30:07.098-08:002016-03-09T10:30:07.098-08:00As an undergraduate, I took a horror screenplay wr...As an undergraduate, I took a horror screenplay writing class, and one of our assignments included a 10 min. presentation on how a contemporary film, horror genre or not, could be considered truly horrific if we considered specific aspects of the film in regard to how the horror genre is defined. Our definition went something like this: The film must contain some type of inescapable fear in which the characters can only save themselves by dying or radically altering their sense of selves. I specifically remember one student using "Looper" as an example, so when you mentioned that most critics said it ripped off other science fiction films, I was quite surprised. If I remember correctly, the student explained the film and its use of time in a way that did indeed fit into our definition of horror—both the loop of time and the butterfly effect as means that ultimately do not allow for escape, other than through death. Because of this, I wonder if it isn't necessarily fair for critics to judge the film based on its qualifications as a science fiction film. I'm not claiming that time, temporality, memory structure, and the others topics we have been discussing in class can always be attributed to the horror genre, but I do think that "Looper" itself, although very much science fiction, might have been more well-received if the film had been viewed through the horror genre lens. What kind of things do we look for in a horror film that are present within "Looper"? Then again, what kind of things are present in a science fiction film that these critics believe that "Looper" either ripped off or executed poorly? Is there space (lol...space) for these two genres to coincide? Or is the variety between them too vast that it might even be considered silly to try?McKenziehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11183103205359229576noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8518835947947433157.post-70649387119843884612016-03-09T09:28:41.892-08:002016-03-09T09:28:41.892-08:00I never noticed the connection of TKs with Hollywo...I never noticed the connection of TKs with Hollywood's depiction of superheroes in the 21st century, but I agree that in a future when time travel and other rapid technological advances occur, those with powers would most likely use them to their own advantage, not in a Christlike way of protecting the meek from themselves via an enlightened path. Both Looper and Source Code provide opportunities for questioning our ability as humans to control power, that is, not use it in a way that would exploit others for our own gain.Ben Cravenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05760265334674280878noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8518835947947433157.post-66100501740805394772016-03-08T18:37:05.264-08:002016-03-08T18:37:05.264-08:00It's interesting that you mention that time is...It's interesting that you mention that time is associated with different things to different people, or at least different versions of them. As we did on the first day of class and discussed how our life could me measured, it seems like younger Joe measures his time in life with killing and money while the older Joe measures his with the time he can spend with his wife. I feel like at different points in our lives, we also associate time with different aspects of our current experiences. <br /><br />This movie seems to contradict the kind of time travel that is presented in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure that Kyle reviewed. The "future," if you will, is more of a utopia because of time travel rather than a dystopia, as presented in Looper. I agree that this is probably most likely due to a stronger focus on societal critiques. Even though in this movie they have the ability to time travel--they have this "most excellent" technology--it is still being used to the advantage of crime organizations. Whatever "assholes" can use to satisfy their wants to maintain their position in society, whatever that may look like, will be used in order to secure that position. These powerful technologies of our times (like guns and stolen identities through the Internet for now) are all too tempting to be used in less than noble ways. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10919938517927575091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8518835947947433157.post-89989884649190956742016-03-08T16:24:28.084-08:002016-03-08T16:24:28.084-08:00It's interesting that Looper uses time as a mo...It's interesting that Looper uses time as a motif rather than as a device, as in the movie that I watched (Jack). I've only seen the movie all the way through once and have watched portions maybe a couple times, so I only remembered the looping and having to kill his older self. I'm interested, though, in the social commentary. I think it's a very dystopian storyline; look at how we have created this control for the betterment of society through looping, when in reality only a few people benefit and many others are harmed by it. While I don't think it's arguing in favor of fate, I do think it's arguing in letting everything run its natural course. Since I didn't remember many details, applying the butterfly effect to this movie was new to me; it would be interesting to re-watch it now and look for those small differences that have large effects. I have taught "Sound of Thunder" many times and enjoy teaching the concept of the butterfly effect to my students (and then watching "The Simpsons" parody). Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17140944873258565457noreply@blogger.com